Bobby Kotick warns UK risks ‘becoming Death Valley’ if it blocks Microsoft deal

Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick has claimed that blocking Microsoft’s acquisition of the Call of Duty publisher would represent a major blow to the UK government’s ambition of becoming a technology superpower.

[closed_account]

King Wart would do best to shut his mouth right about now. He escaped the boiling water of scandals for now...

...for now.

[Jin_Sakai]

Absolutely cannot stand this guy. The sooner he exits gaming the better.

[VenomUK]

He’s concerned. If the deal goes ahead I would think he will make multiple hundred millions of dollars. The CMA are not concerned about that kind of threat.

[Godmars290]

That he has warns that he might even keep his job once all this is done. Be given a position directly in MS.

[EverydayJoe]

He should probably just lay off another 1000 employees and give himself another 200 million dollar bonus.

[DarXyde]

And he very likely will escape if the deal goes through.

Microsoft seems quite okay with that, but there's plenty of blame to go around there. Literally none of the console manufacturers halted game sales when this all happened. It is embarrassing.

[-Foxtrot]

That kind of sounds like a threat

Who does he think he is the Godfather

[Eonjay]

Kinda seems like if the deal fails Microsoft found the perfect scapegoat. What is actually wrong with him.

[battletrax]

He's the all powerful RichFather

[1Victor]

@ fox “ Who does he think he is the Godfather”
No he’s more like the blob’s father.
Did you see how fat he is for a moment I thought it was Jaba the hut

[Dre180]

This guy. He wishes he was the godfather. Looks more like Wayne Newton.

[DarXyde]

It's kind of hilarious, honestly.

Imagine being such a goddamn nerd that your veiled threat is about video video games.

We all love games, but c'mon, that is hilarious.

[senorfartcushion]

It’s not like every other video game company isn’t increasing prices across the board for no reason.

The UK - as well as every other country - will be fine even without Activision

[Nyxus]

Shut up Bobby

[MIDGETonSTILTS17]

Can somebody please arrest him?

[roadkillers]

Why?

[MIDGETonSTILTS17]

For not reporting systemic sexual harassment, and then trying to get even richer from his poorly handled position instead of shutting tfu.

[Christopher]

If you don't let this American company buy this other American company, the UK will become Death Valley, which is an American reference, because absolutely no publisher wants to sell CoD, WoW, or Diablo 4 in the UK otherwise?

[GamerRN]

In all honesty, if someone like Tencent buys them, we are screwed....

[Christopher]

In all honesty, if anyone buys them that is already a publisher in the industry, we are screwed. If Microsoft is allowed to buy them, then there is zero stopping Tencent from gobbling up the rest of the industry.

[Extermin8or3_]

If MS is allowed to buy them you seriously think tencent eould be able to.

[Christopher]

***If MS is allowed to buy them you seriously think tencent eould be able to.***

There would be no legal foundation for stopping them other than "We No Like China" which would be a political nightmare in and of itself. This action will set the precedent that buying up IPs via publisher buyouts is fine for the consumer and not at all anti-competitive.

[fleshzombie]

How about nobody buys them and they continue as the giant corporation they already are?

[GamerRN]

Tencent is a Chinese company with zero concern about trade law

[GamerRN]

What you guys need to realize is they are dying. Eventually Call of Duty will fall. They aren't making any new ips and they can't afford the risk. They realize that now is the time to sell before the dream crashes down.

[dumahim]

Death Valley Island.

[S2Killinit]

MS sleeping with some savory characters.

[Eonjay]

Bobby doesn't give a damn about the tech industry or the UK. He only wants his half a billion dollar golden parachute.

[Profchaos]

They are poking holes in my golden parachute stop it UK

[Seraphim]

except isn't he expected to continue leading Act/Blizz post merger? hard to get a golden parachute when you're staying on the job. Granted, considering most of his compensation has likely been a treasure trove of stock, yeah, he's in for a major payday but a golden parachute, hardly.

[Futureshark]

I think even the UK can survive this tits idle threats.

[franwex]

The UK doesn't need this deal to fail at becoming a tech super power. They can easily fail all on their own.

[anubusgold]

Bobby is right you cant appeal this in the UK what tech company would want to move there . They are trying to get tech companies to come to the UK but they make stupid decisions you cant appeal. Tencent has bought so many companies and they are worried about Microsoft and not the CCP censors.

[Extermin8or3_]

You can appeal it just it undergoes judicial review not a full blown court case with all its intricacies. What is assessed is if the process by which the CMA made its decision was fair and evidence based. It's actually a very reasonable and fair process that is less open to abuse.

[Sharpie]

The UK is 1st in Europe and 3rd in the world by tech industry size. UK tech companies have raised more than France and Germany combined. 3 million employed in tech £10 billion raised for fintech every year, 8 cities have more than 2 unicorns. Have you been living under a rock?

[Thundercat77]

Looks like he went from "I'm sure the deal will be approved" to making warnings and threads.

He is scared.

[darkrider]

Yeah, for the first time. Just like Microsoft, they went from 3 years to 5 year and 10 years for Cod on the ps5.... They just don't want to say it will be always on all platforms. It's really easy to see. They just need to bend knee and the deal is approved.

[Orchard]

They would likely sign a concession agreement saying it’ll remain on all platforms. The revenue of COD is insane - totally worth it.

[Asplundh]

They never said 3 or 5 years, you're echoing Jim Ryan's words. The deal Sony had with Activision was for 3 more years, I'm not sure why people expect a commitment from MS beyond 10 years, it's unreasonable and I'd be surprised if anyone else is doing anywhere close to that commitment with their games. Also I'm pretty that 10 year agreement will be contractual.

[Thundercat77]

Looks like user Orchard also went from "this deal is totally assured and will be approved easily" to "they will likely sign a concession agreement" 😂.

Looks like those who were "sure" this deal was going to be approved are know starting to change their opinion.

[badz149]

@Asplundh

"I'm not sure why people expect a commitment from MS beyond 10 years, it's unreasonable and I'd be surprised if anyone else is doing anywhere close to that commitment with their games."

the more reason why this buyout shouldn't be approved!

[DarkZane]

That deal is not going to go through and thank god for that. Not only it would benifit no one except Xbox fanboys, but Microsoft are garbage and can't manage their studios. If they could, they would have good games like Sony and Nintendo and wouldn't need to buy publishers just to keep games off other platforms.

[darkrider]

This seems desperation and nothing more! He wants to get is big fat paycheck

[Vengeance1138]

Bobby boy desperate to make his millions from the deal, needs more gold plated toilet seats.

[Dirty_Lemons]

Hi Bobby Dick, I'm one of 67 million British but I'd like to speak for everyone when I say: Go fuck yourself.

[Hofstaderman]

Please add the word “wanker” or “tosser” in there.

[Dirty_Lemons]

Briefcase wanker? 😂

[Hofstaderman]

@Dirty_Lemons briefcase sod wanker

[Godmars290]

Cause, if he's leaving, MS/Activision's going to walk away from the hundreds of millions in revenue the UK represents. Like he'd have that kind of pull even if he stays.

[Destiny1080]

microsoft threatening the FTC, Bobby threatening the UK

phil said 3 days

[badz149]

now we wait for the next episode of "Phil says"

[YourMommySpoils]

Lol! Now they're really shooting themselves in the leg, having him talk.

[anubusgold]

The UK cant force them to sell games to sony they could just cut them off to get revenge on sony for blowing up this deal.

[SoulWarrior]

So if the deal fails they'd just stop releasing games in a petty revenge move? Yeah I'm sure all the shareholders will be happy with missing out on the billions CoD makes on Sony platforms, much more than Xbox generates for them, I'm sure they'll allow that.

[anubusgold]

@SoulWarrior Tell that to Ea they made billions off sega when sega pissed them off they dropped them completely sega made EA sports and EA dropped them anyway. EA games did not sell on Nintendo most of their games was sega exclusives with some coming to PC.

[badz149]

Bobby is desperate but not stupid!

if the deal fails, they can't just leave PS out of COD for now as they already have a deal with Sony for a couple more years and PS is their biggest earner BY FAR for COD anyway. Sure you can be a dumb-dumb and cancel the PS version out of revenge but you will have all the other shareholders suing you to shreds!

[CobraKai]

Dude feels his billion dollar payout slipping away

[BLAKHOODe]

Kotick will say whatever gets him paid the most. He doesn't care about the UK, you, gamers..

Bobby Kotick cares about Bobby Kotick.

[Angyobangyo]

So he's threatening governments now. What a great guy he is /s

[P_Bomb]

Not exactly a sympathetic individual, is he?

[343_Guilty_Spark]

He’s right

[blacktiger]

Bobby Kotick is perfect for Microsoft. Two @ssole!

[Elda]

LOL! Dude sounds cray cray.

[IRetrouk]

🤣🤣🤦‍♂️

[hotnickles]

Bobby declaring war on yall.

[derek]

Sounds like the know its going to be blocked.

[Orchard]

Hopefully not. The potential alternative is way worse. Microsoft shopping around for smaller publishers and studios with $66bn to spend.

[Hofstaderman]

Well you can’t teach an old dog new tricks hey.

[Orchard]

Acquisitions are the name of the game if you’re Microsoft or Sony. Nintendo less so.

[Nyxus]

Or they could just use it to make games with the studios they already have?

[Outside_ofthe_Box]

Why is that "worse"?

[azzkikr8502]

or the upside is buy studios so that they can bring back old ips they have sitting around doing nothing. plenty of studios to go around vs 2 publishers. at least with a studio/studios, they can not take the IP with them. i dont think any1 would have an issue if infinity ward or treyarch was bought as they alone can not take COD away. yes the talent pool may shift, but opportunities can come from this as well. could be the kick that sledge hammer or another internal studio to create something better.

[badz149]

@Nyxus

what a crazy idea!

[Orchard]

@Outside That could mean them buying companies like T2, EA, Ubisoft, Capcom etc. That's worse for gamers than COD imo - because COD they basically have to keep on other platforms due to the $$$, that wouldn't be true for 'smaller' IPs (e.g. look at Zenimax)

[frostypants]

LOL

[Hofstaderman]

Bobby Kodick

[EverydayJoe]

Bloody Kotex

[Orchard]

The way he went about it was too abrupt / asshole-y - but he is right. Why would any tech companies move there or anyone invest in tech there when they appear as anti-big business.

Anyway, we know how this is going to play out. Concessions and some “you scratch my back I scratch yours”. Western governments are all the same.

[SoulWarrior]

The current UK government is actually very pro big business, hence most of them get away with paying virtually no tax using loopholes that they won't lift a finger to close, but the government do not sway regulation bodies so these things aren't mutually exclusive.

Bobby is just blowing hot air as he wants his big pay day.

[esherwood]

The way blizzards been going I’m down to see what Microsoft does with them, can’t get any worse

[kneon]

Don't underestimate microsofts ability to destroy an acquisition, they have an excellent track record of doing exactly that.

[Hofstaderman]

Rare says hello.

[badz149]

Nokia says hi from the graveyard

[plmkoh]

If this guy says it then you know the opposite is true.

[badz149]

err...this is not Michael Pachter

[Kakashi Hatake]

A big reason Xbox guys wanted this deal to go through is because it would stick it to Kotick. Wonder how their fake outrage plays into this now that he's for the deal.

[Btf_1991]

Bobby GotD!ck

[mastershredder]

Fear mongering. How cute. So much in it for him, it reeks of self-serving acquisition bonuses. Absolute garbage human being.

[Soy]

How, are you going to run for Prime Minister?

[ANIALATOR136]

(((Bobby Kotick)))

[Rhythmattic]

Bobs on C-ck D_ck

[gold_drake]

waat haha
can u imagine a guy like him threatening a whole arse cluntry like that.

what the actual fuck haha. he should take several seats as he had no ground to stand on, threatening someone else.

[isarai]

What a manchild, again what ever happened to all the sexual harassment charges on this guy?

[XiNatsuDragnel]

Bobby you need to be quiet because your allegations are showing lol.

[Alos88]

In a perfect world this man would be scrubbing toilets instead of somehow being allowed to stay on after running one of the biggest publishers in the world into the ground, I'm for anything he's against.

[KillBill]

People in the comments obviously didn't listen to the complete point being made. It wasn't in this case in particular that would lead to said "Death Valley" comment but the idea that such regulatory moves of the kind are counter to what they are hoping to achieve in the UK.

[TriniOutsider]

This man just wants his golden parachute from MS at this point and he knows he can't get it without them.

[Tzuno]

He's a disgusting human that cares only about the money

[tagzskie]

I dont care if the deals go through. Just arrest this boy kottick first..

[rlow1]

People on here get so caught up on Bobby.

My question is, how does buying Activision have anything to do with stifling competition in the cloud? I can see them saying the console but the cloud?
Personally I think there is more at play here and the UK has some alternative ambitions in the tech world.

The cloud….. really!?

[moomoo319]

How does this man still have his job???? F* a share price your company was a literal cesspool of bad behavior 😂 on top of firing employees while giving yourself huge bonuses. Jesus.

[anast]

Blocking this deal is good for gaming. With MS, everything for rent while nothing is for sale.

[darkrider]

He already new that UK would block. This was a preemptive attack. Trying is luck...

[Crows90]

Another reason why it shouldnt go through. If this guy really wants it...maybe its best he doesnt get his way.

[geekmandem]

I see Bobby hasn't been to the UK of late. It's a bit late for "Death Valley".

[Goozex]

Just heard the deal has been blocked!!!

[SeTTriP]

This just in, The cma rejected the deal

[blacktiger]

Money making licking machine still talking